RESEARCH: THE FORMATION OF ENGINEERS IN THE RESEARCH LAB: A COGNITIVE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

对于各级工程和科学专业的学生来说，在实际研究实验室工作的经验越来越被视为他们教育的重要组成部分。真实的研究经验，而不是模拟设置实验的实验室课程，是受欢迎的，因为他们让学生接触到科学和工程的真实的实践。这种接触加强了学生在正式课程中获得的知识和理解。 然而，这一运动提出了一些关键问题。 关于真实的研究经验是否、如何以及为什么对学生有贡献，我们知道多少？学习？真实研究经验的学习成果是什么？学习和专业化如何在实验室中展开？可能出现的问题或功能障碍是什么？研究经验如何增加教育机会或不平等？以前的研究主要集中在正式的实验室模拟课程。很少有对实际研究实验室的研究关注学习过程的细节。本研究通过研究学习和专业化的过程，解决了工程教育和专业形成的研究中的差距，因为他们在一个单一的工程研究实验室详细发挥。研究人员收集有关实验室内部工作的详细定性数据，以了解学习和专业化在实验室文化中的作用。本研究追溯了学习过程中的细节，在具体的实践和学习的时刻。该方法是一个有用的先驱，设计更有效的定量调查的学生学习，它也起着重要的作用，在确定神话和误解的学习过程中，可以阻碍工程教育的努力。这项研究将影响包括认知科学和科学技术研究在内的领域，通过扩展研究复杂社会空间中丰富，定性，情境细节的学习和发展的方法和理论。这项研究将具体包括一个重点真实的研究经验和教育公平之间的关系，以跟踪这些研究经验可能会打击或有助于现有的不平等的方式。 本研究采用认知民族志的方法，以情境学习和分布式认知为理论框架。研究人员将使用一般和认知民族志来了解实验室的文化，追踪学生融入该实验室的过程，他们如何学习参与实验室的认知活动，以及这如何影响他们的专业形成。本研究提供了一个重要的基础比较和假设驱动的学生学习的真实研究经验的探索。特别是，深入的，定位的，定性的，以过程为中心的研究可以指导假设驱动或定量研究，使其更具生态有效性。这项研究将有助于工程和科学教育领域，更普遍地学习科学，通过解决这些领域的差距，了解真实研究经验中学习过程的细节，以及直接和间接地告知科学和教育研究和实践。由于本项目扩展了使用认知民族志方法和情境学习和分布式认知理论的工作范围，因此本研究也将在认知科学和科学技术研究领域提供先进的知识和研究方法，这些方法发挥着重要作用。该研究将直接指导当地和全球教学实践的改进，并通过为未来的教学研究提供更坚实的基础间接改进。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

For engineering and science students at all levels, experience working in an actual research laboratory is increasingly regarded as an essential part of their education. Authentic research experiences, as opposed to laboratory courses that simulate set experiments, are favored because they expose students to the real practices of science and engineering. This exposure reinforces the knowledge and understanding students gain in their formal coursework. However, this movement raises a number of critical questions. How much is known about whether, how, and why authentic research experiences contribute to the students? learning? What are the learning outcomes of authentic research experiences? How does learning and professionalization unfold in the lab? What are the problems or dysfunctions that can arise? How do research experiences increase educational opportunities or inequities? Previous studies have focused primarily on formal laboratory simulation courses. Few studies of actual research labs have focused on the details of the learning process. This study addresses a gap in the research on engineering education and professional formation by examining the processes of learning and professionalization as they play out in detail in a single engineering research lab. The researchers collect detailed, qualitative data on the inner workings of the laboratory, in order to understand the role of learning and professionalization in the laboratory culture. This research traces the fine details of the learning process in specific practices and moments of learning. The approach is a useful precursor to designing more valid quantitative investigations of student learning; it also plays an important role in identifying myths and misconceptions about the learning process that can impede engineering education efforts. This study will impact fields including cognitive science and science and technology studies by extending the methods and theories for studying learning and development in complex, social spaces in rich, qualitative, situated detail. This research will specifically include a focus on the relationship between authentic research experiences and educational equity, to trace ways in which such research experiences might combat or contribute to existing inequities. The methodological approach of our study is cognitive ethnography, based in the theoretical frameworks of situated learning and distributed cognition. Researchers will use general and cognitive ethnography to understand the culture of the laboratory, trace the processes by which students become enculturated into that laboratory, how they learn to participate in the cognitive activities of the lab, and how this impacts their professional formation. This study provides a crucial foundation for comparative and hypothesis-driven explorations of student learning in authentic research experiences. In particular, in-depth, situated, qualitative, process-focused research can guide hypothesis-driven or quantitative research to be more ecologically valid. This study will contribute to the field of engineering and science education, and learning sciences more generally, by addressing the gaps in those fields about the details of the learning process in authentic research experiences, as well as directly and indirectly informing science and education research and practices. As this project extends the range of work using methods of cognitive ethnography and the theories of situated learning and distributed cognition, this study will also provide advance knowledge and research methods in the fields of cognitive science and science and technology studies, where such approaches play an important role. This research will both directly guide improvements to local and global pedagogical practices, and indirectly improve it through providing a firmer foundation for future pedagogical research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.